New System - Old OS

Whirlo

Just a quick question for the masses of people smarter than me:

I'm upgrading my computer and replacing the mobo, the PCU, the ram and the video card, as well as the case. Alright I"m basically putting together a new one with a couple of the old components.

Can I take my old hard drive, pop it into the new system once its together, and turn it on and run my old windows? Is it better to wipe the HD and then plug it into the new system and reinstall windows? I'd much prefer not to do this, particularly because it will take hours to reinstall WoW and set my UI back up.



More information:
OLD :
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
MSI 945P Neo5-F LGA 775 Intel 945P ATX Intel Motherboard
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 256-bit GDDR3

NEW :
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5

bigwah

Here is the TLDR, Move WoW to a portable drive, reinstall windows, copy wow back over.

Greenish

Id almost count on your current windows install not booting with a new motherboard when its expecting the old one. There are steps you can take to smooth the transition, most involve uninstalling your chipset drivers before you replace the motherboard. Id do some research at some manufacturer specific hardware forums before you attempt it. Its usually a simple process and ive had an old windows install recognise a new motherboard around 3 out of 4 times. If it doesn't work you can always try a repair install of your OS. Backup your stuff before you try this.

theSquid

Windows will make you reactivate it. Otherwise, shouldn't be much of an issue.

stigweard

The only real issue will be the different motherboard chipset. You need to go into the device manager (before changing the hardware) and change the ide drivers to the default version that windows uses. If you are using sata drives, set them to ide mode in the bios and then pop the drive into the new box and it should go fine.

Buttcleft

in my experience its just easier to reinstall

Whirlo

bigwah wrote: »

Here is the TLDR, Move WoW to a portable drive, reinstall windows, copy wow back over.

Does this actually work? Won't that copy of WoW be missing from the new window's registry or something?

ignorant question is ignorant

autono-wally, erotibot300

With most games it doesn't work, but it works perfectly with WoW
I installed wow once in 2006 and since then only moved the game through about 5 versions of windows and two different PCs before I quit.
Which is very good, because installing nowadays takes like 5 hours or something equally silly

PeregrineFalcon

bigwah wrote: »

Here is the TLDR, Move WoW to a portable drive, reinstall windows, copy wow back over.

This, and it will work perfectly and not result in Windows trying to fuck you in the mouth when it loads all of the Intel chipset drivers on an AMD board. :P

Elimination

Buttcleft wrote: »

in my experience its just easier to reinstall

This. But if it is one of those pre-installed OEM ones it is key'd to the mobo usually.

Also it sounds like you aren't all up onz da PC's. Make sure your mobo supports your processor. Many newbies make the mistake of going "hey its the same socket it supports it!" This is not true, even if it has the same socket it may not support the processor.

Tofystedeth

If you don't want to reinstall, a repair install will also usually suffice to get the correct chipset drivers and whatnot going with your new mobo. It'll leave all your data intact, but you'll need to reapply all updates and service packs.

As always, back up your shit first just in case.

also: ++ to the WoW thing. Makes it so much easier.

Whirlo

Elimination wrote: »

Also it sounds like you aren't all up onz da PC's. Make sure your mobo supports your processor. Many newbies make the mistake of going "hey its the same socket it supports it!" This is not true, even if it has the same socket it may not support the processor.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 AM3 AMD 790X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard